[128:2] Acts xx. 1.
[128:3] Rom. xv. 19.
[128:4] See Acts xix. 22.
[128:5] 1 Tim. i. 3.
[128:6] 1 Tim. i. 2.
[129:1] According to the chronology adopted in our English Bible, all the Pastoral Epistles were written after Paul's release from his first imprisonment, and this theory has recently been strenuously advocated by Conybeare and Howson, Alford, and Ellicott; but their reasonings are exceedingly unsatisfactory. For, I. The statement of Conybeare and Howson that "the three epistles were nearly contemporaneous with each other" is a mere assertion resting on no solid foundation; as resemblance in style, especially when all the letters were dictated by the same individual, can be no evidence as to date. II. There is direct evidence that heresies, such as those described in these epistles, existed in the Church long before Paul's first imprisonment. See 1 Cor. iii. 18, 19, xv. 12; 2 Cor. xi. 4, 13, 14, 15, 22, compared with 1 Tim. i. 3, 7. III. The early Churches were very soon organised, as appears from Acts xiv. 23; 1 Thess. v. 12, 13; so that the state of ecclesiastical organisation described in the First Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus is no proof of the late date of these letters. IV. But the grand argument in support of the early date, and one with which the advocates of the later chronology have never fairly grappled, is derived from the fact that Paul never was in Ephesus after the time mentioned in Acts xx. When he wrote to Timothy he intended shortly to return thither. See 1 Tim. i. 3, iii. 14, 15. It is evident that when the apostle addressed the elders of Ephesus (Acts xx. 25) and told them they should "see his face no more," he considered himself as speaking prophetically. It is clear, too, that his words were so understood by his auditors (Acts xx. 38), and that the evangelist, who wrote them down several years afterwards, was still under the same impression. I agree, therefore, with Wieseler, and others, in assigning an early date to the First Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus.
[130:1] 2 Cor. xi. 9, 24-28, 32, 33, xii. 2, 7-9. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written late in A.D. 57.
[130:2] 2 Cor. ii. 4.
[130:3] [Greek: eis tên Hellada], i.e., Achaia.
[130:4] Acts xx. 2, 3.